Can wine pair with comfort food
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Wine and Food Pairing
When you add milk to coffee it changes the flavor, texture and smell, and depending on how much, or what kind of milk, you add that can alters the Coffee as well; the same goes for wine and food. The wine can enhance the flavor of the food or the food could bring out the taste of the wine. Wine and food pairing have been around for a while now but the question always arises. What is a good pairing? How do I know which food goes well with what wine? What are the rules to pairing wine and food? Is there a secret? Well, the secret is that there are no rules to pairing wine and food; there are guidelines. Small tips that can help you figure out which types of food or wine goes well with each other. “There are no wrong matches,” says Leslie Sbrocco, author of “The Simple and Savvy Wine Guide” (William Morrow 2006). “But there can be magical matches, there are no rules but there are guidelines.” The pairing of wine and food is a creative process that allows the individual to combine and mix with their own decision. But just like all creative process there are guidelines to help you enhance those decisions. There are many simple guidelines to help decide which pairing of wine and food are good, such as sweet foods taste less sweet with wines that have a strong tannic taste. Salty foods makes the tannins of wines come out more. Salty foods cover the sweetness of the wine while enhancing the fruitiness of the wine. Small tips like that can be found all over the web or in books. www.Grandwinecellar.com is an example of one of these sites; on this site it gives a short bullet point listing of simple guidelines that can help a person decided what kind of flavors go well with different wines. So if you wanted to make something with white beans, the charts and guidelines would explain that Chardonnay is a good choice to go with. It doesn’t tell the person what to cook or how to drink the wine it simply tells them which ingredients would go well together. The list goes on, and this is just one guideline. Pairing food with wine is a very tricky yet fun experiment, there is one universal wine and food pairing rule. That one rule is this, a good pairing of wine and food is when the wine and food do not overshadow each other, rather enhances the flavor and boosts the other up. Now each person has their own preference when it comes to food so what one person enjoys can be different from another person. You just need to find the right pairing that suites your flavor and palate. So how do we start with picking the right type of wine? To beginning there are some key questions you should ask yourself; such as the weight, is the wine heavy, medium, or light body? What about the flavor? Is it strong or weak? What kind of smells does the wine have and of course what kind of flavors. After you mapped out the wine you can than add the right type of food that will match or enhance the wine. For example, Cabernet Sauvignon goes well with red meat because they both are full-bodied, strong flavor and the meat will lighten the tannins. It can also be reversed and you could start with mapping the food. It is a lot of a scientific trial and error. Next are some tips about pairing wine and food together, some ingredients, and type of foods, will mask the flavor of the wine such as artichokes, olives, vinegar, yogurt etc., these will become very helpful when you don’t want the flavor of the wine to come out. Whether it be for other reasons, such as your looking for the texture of the wine rather than the flavor, or it could be that the wine just isn’t that good. Cigarettes and cigars are the worst with wine, they mask and cover up the smell and flavor of the wine and ruins them. Cheese and wine are pretty popular and a contained portion in both will balance out the flavor of both, but too much cheese or the wrong type of cheese and it can cover the taste of the wine. It will not only cover the taste but also the texture and smell as well. Keep in mind every aspect of the wine when pairing food, for example the alcohol level in the wine can be a big factor, a low-alcohol wine goes very well with spicy foods. And sometimes less is more, to enjoy complex food pair it off with a simple wine, or reverse it and if you have a complex wine pair it with a simple dish. Pairing food and wine is a learning experience that grows with the person palate. With simple guidelines and that one golden rule anyone can become a master at pairing the two.
Whisky Around The World
Throughout the centuries, whisky has proven to be one of the most enduring and popular alcoholic spirits in the world, with a vast range of countries attempting to produce whiskies in their own style today. Whilst we commonly associate whisky with the golden age of Scotland in the 19th century, the Scots were far from the first to make this special and recognisable drink. Indeed, there is much evidence to suggest that the techniques still common to this day were being employed by ancient cultures across the world, with much debate over who was the first to actually make and enjoy this drink. One of the most popular theories points towards the ancient Babylonians of Mesopotamia, who could well have been fermenting grains for the production of whisky as long as four thousand years ago, where it was enjoyed as an aromatic drink, flavoured and perfumed with various spices, and used as a medicinal treatment for a wide range of ailments. Fast forward a few thousand years to the medieval times, and whisky was brought to the British Isles, where it was made in the 15th century by Irish and Scottish monks for both medicinal and recreational drinking. It remained a practice of religious communities for some time, before King Henry VIII of England destroyed the monasteries and set up his own church, forcing whisky production into homes and specially set up distilleries. However, whisky in the 15th and 16th centuries was almost unrecognisable from the drink we widely enjoy today, as the distillate was not left to age and mellow in wooden casks, resulting in a harsh, highly alcoholic and somewhat brutal drink not for the faint of heart. Indeed, it is likely that several people died from drinking this early whisky, as it was difficult to control the alcohol content in the drink. Scottish and Irish Whisky Over time, whisky became an important product for both the Scottish and Irish economies, where the practices involved in making the drink were relatively similar, and resulted in similar whisky styles. However, today Irish whiskey (note the difference in spelling) distinguishes itself from Scotch whisky by being distilled three times, and by law must be aged for a minimum of three years in wood, where it takes on its distinctive earthy and oak tones. Irish whiskey is also usually made from unpeated malt, whilst Scotch whisky prides itself on the peat smoking process (where the grains or malt used in the production are infused with smoke from burning the black peat which is found all over the country) which helps give a beautiful and unusual flavour reminiscent of the highland air. Whiskies of the USA One of the other key countries to involve itself in whisky production over the past couple of centuries has been the United States of America, where immigrants from the British Isles were quick to set up whisky distilleries of their own in the New World. American whiskies differ quite considerably from their Scottish and Irish cousins, as they commonly use both corn and rye in their cereal content – ingredients which were growing extensively in the United States and required little cultivation. American whiskies are split into several categories, being Bourbon, Malt, Rye, Corn, Rye Malt and Wheat whisky, each of which must contain no more than eighty percent alcohol, and must by law be aged in wooden casks (with the exception of corn whisky). It is worth mentioning Tennessee whisky, a style which normally stands out from other American whiskies and which is enjoyed all over the world. In Tennessee, it is common for their whiskies to be filtered through charcoal made from sweet maple, which lends the drink a distinctive and very American flavour. Canadian Whisky Further north, we find the interesting and highly drinkable Canadian whiskies, which are often far lighter and smoother than their USA counterparts. In Canada, whiskies are often sweetened using caramel, and have various flavourings added to their blend. Whilst Canadian whiskies are unlikely to satisfy purists in the Old World, they are widely popular in Canada and various other countries due to their accessibility and unchallenging nature. Other Countries The past few decades has seen an explosion of whisky production all across the globe, and notable countries include those in Scandinavia, where distilling all sorts of grains and herbs has been commonplace for centuries. Scandinavian whiskies – particularly those made in Sweden and Finland – have received critical acclaim recently, and it is expected there will be several more distilleries opened in the next few years. Germany is also establishing a whisky culture, as are countries as far away from whisky's spiritual home as Japan and India, where drinking and collecting fine whisky is very much seen as a status symbol.
What is Rose Wine
Rose wines are often referred to as “blush wines.” They are not white wines, but they are not dark enough to be red wines. Contrary to the opinion of many, not all rose wines share the same characteristics. Rose wine became popular during the 1970’s. The demand for white wine increased, but there were not enough grapes available for production. Many winemakers tried to produce white wine by using red grapes. Sutter Homes “White Zinfandel” was created in 1975 from a stuck fermentation where the yeast died early and left behind a pink, sweeter wine. The three most popular ways to make rose wines are skin contact, saignee, and blending. Skin Contact Skin contact is when the skins of the crushed grapes are left in contact with the wine for a certain period of time. The skins will usually have contact with the wine for one to three days. While making red wine, the skins would be left in the wine during the entire fermentation period. The longer the skins are left in contact, the darker the shade of the wine will be. Saignee Saignee is also known as bleeding the vats. In order to raise the tannins in a wine, the winemaker releases some of the juice from the must. The juice is lighter in color, and can be made into rose wine. The remaining red wine in the tank will have more tannin. Blending Blending is simply mixing red wine into white wine to give it a little bit of color. This practice is frowned upon, but it is an option as a way to make rose wine. The term “blush” was originally used in North America, but is now used in reference to Austrailian and Italian wines as well. “Blush” was trademarked in 1978 and the name was used to market a more sweet, rose wine. While rose wine was first made to be delicate and dry, after World War II people started to prefer a sweeter taste. Grenache, Syrah, Carignan, and Zinfandel grapes are all popular to use in making this type of wine. Rose wines are more popular than white wines in France, and they also make a great summer drink.
